Speakers

Dr. Gerd Götz
Director General European Aluminium

Dr. Gerd Götz has been Director General of European Aluminium since 2013. Gerd looks back to more than 20 years of experience in the electronics industry where he has held different managing roles in public affairs, corporate communications and brand management in Hamburg, Brussels and Amsterdam, after having started his career as business editor in Berlin. He was most recently Vice President and Global Head of Public Affairs with Royal Philips. He has been deputy global director of Philips‘ Corporate Communications department between 2003 and 2008. A German national, he studied Business Administration and Economics at Berlin’s Free University and Université Paris-Dauphine, and earned his Ph.D. from Berlin’s Free University.

Aminda Leigh
Congress Facilitator

Aminda Leigh is a British journalist with more than 25 years’ experience, half of which working for various BBC radio and TV channels. She moved to Italy in 2001, from where she runs her own business offering journalism, production, moderation and translation services for a wide variety of European and international clients. She specialises in environmental issues, culture and EU affairs. Aminda has made award winning web-documentaries and news videos for the European Commission, among others. She has moderated entire conferences and sessions at major events - for example EU Green Week and the European Business Summit - covering subjects such as the circular economy, resource efficiency, sustainable development, green growth and climate change.

An economist by training, he has been an official in the European Commission since 1985 in the fields of Enterprise and Industrial Policy and of External Relations.

Since December 2008, he has been Director in DG GROWTH (DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs), in charge of competitiveness issues and EU internal market legislation for several industrial sectors, including REACH, engineering industries, medical devices, raw materials, etc.

Julie was born in London, educated at Twickenham County Grammar School followed by Liverpool University where she graduated in 1979 with a degree in History and Politics. She joined Ford Motor Company as a graduate trainee working on the shop floor in a supervisory role and later moved into retail management with Argos, Dixons/Currys and Boots before heading up Buying and Marketing at Halfords. She then spent several years living and working in Indonesia with her husband.

In 1999 Julie was elected as a Councillor on Cotswold District Council and became Leader of the Council in 2003. In 2000 she was elected to Gloucestershire County Council and became Lead Cabinet Member for the Environment in 2005.

Julie was delighted to be elected as MEP for the South West of England and Gibraltar in June 2009 and successfully re-elected for a second term in May 2014. With a keen interest in all agricultural and environmental matters she was very pleased to be reappointed to the Environment, Public Health & Food Safety Committee as UK Conservative Spokesperson and is currently Rapporteur on Air Quality. Julie is also a member of the Agriculture Committee and the Women’s Rights & Gender Equality Committee as well as a member of the ASEAN Delegation for relations with South East Asia.

Roland Scharf-Bergmann
Senior Vice PresidentHydro Aluminium

Roland Scharf-Bergmann is responsible for the Business Unit Recycling in Hydro Aluminium and has a governance role for recycling globally. He has been a member of the Metal Markets and Primary Metal Management Teams since he joined Hydro in 2009.

From 1998 to 2009 he worked for the companies VAW-IMCO, IMCO Recycling and Aleris finally serving as CEO of the European recycling operations of Aleris Recycling. From 1990 to 1998 Roland worked for Air Products & Chemicals in Hattingen, Germany, and Walton-on-Thames, UK serving as product, sales and marketing manager.

During his career Roland held several positions in the German and European Recycling associations as well as on the LME aluminium committee. Currently he serves as chairman of the Recycling Division of European Aluminium Association. He holds a Diploma degree in Non-Ferrous Metallurgy from Technical University of Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany.

Marco Georgiou
Managing Consultant and Head of the Primary and the Products Aluminium divisionCRU

Marco is a Managing Consultant at CRU and is Head of CRU’s Primary and Products Aluminium division. He is the editor of CRU’s aluminium primary publications which deliver high quality analysis incorporating aluminium production, demand and price forecasts. Marco regularly provides insight on the aluminium market at world aluminium conferences and is a respected authority on aluminium. Prior to working at CRU, Marco had extensive experience working in London and Munich in the aluminium, composites and semiconductor industries. Marco has an MBA from the OUBS, an MSc in Physics from Bristol University and a BEng (Hons) Materials Engineering from Liverpool University.

Ms. Marlen Bertram, Director – Product Stewardship, joined the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) in 2008. Her role is to position the aluminium industry with regard to their sustainability and recycling qualification. Her current focus is on the IAI Mass Flow Project, which studies aluminium cycles on regional and global scales. Before joining the IAI, Ms. Bertram worked for the Organisation of European Aluminium Refiners and Remelters (OEA), as Manager Recycling since 2004. She holds a degree as Dipl.-Ing. in Environmental Science and Process Engineering.

﻿﻿Dr. Beate Kummer
Chemist and Toxicologist ConsultantScholzAlu

Dr. Beate Kummer, consultant, since 2005 managing director of her own consultancy Kummer:Umweltkommunikation GmbH, has now around 20 years experience in the waste management sector and all other environmental aspects. Her background includes experiences in science, consulting, lobbying, stakeholder management, education, communication and political affairs. Since 2005 she is also an adviser for Scholz Holding GmbH, working on communication and education. She is responsible for the contacts to the press and politicians in the EU and on a national basis. Since years she is also working on the problems of the high amounts of ELVs which are leaving the European market. When she finished her studies in Freiburg and Los Angeles 1994 with degrees in chemistry and toxicology, she joined bvse – Bundesverband Sekundärrohstoffe und Entsorgung e.V. in Bonn, first as consultant, later she became managing director. As managing director and head of the office of the environmental consultancy Haase & Naundorf Umweltconsulting GmbH in Bad Honnef between 2002 and 2005 she was responsible for key account clients.

Thomas Lauritzen
Vice ChairmanA/U/F Board

Thomas Lauritzen is the Senior Vice President of Schüco International KG and a Business School Graduate. He has been with the company for 25 years and has held various leadership positions. He is currently a Board member of the following associations: European Aluminium; the German window, door and curtain wall association (VFF); and the German recycling initiative (AUF).

Rick has spent the past 27 years in a number of different roles in the packaging recycling industry as an aluminium specialist in the UK. He joined the Aluminium Can Recycling Association (ACRA) in 1989 as regional manager. He was heavily involved in the launch of the national programme to encourage consumers to recycle aluminium drink cans. Rick left ACRA in 1999 to join Alcan Aluminium Can Recycling as operations manager, responsible for the company’s “cash for can” centre network. The following year he became General Manager and was responsible for running Alcan’s (now Novelis) can recycling programme in the UK. In February 2007, after a short period working for Valpak he joined the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) as Executive Director. He is responsible for developing and implementing the aluminium industry’s strategy to maximise the recycling rate for aluminium packaging in the UK. He is also a Director of the Aluminium Federation and a member of the UK Government’s Advisory Committee on Packaging (ACP).

Magdalena Garczyńska
Recycling DirectorEuropean Aluminium

Magdalena has over 10 years’ experience in engineering and public affairs. She leads the recycling division within the European Aluminium. Prior to joining the European Aluminium, she was a technical manager at the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries (CECIMO) where she guided the association’s work on environmental, energy, research and engineering issues. She also worked at the NSF International as quality control auditor and the Berlin University of Technology as a researcher. Magdalena holds a M.Sc. degree in mechanical engineering from Poznań Technical University/Poland and a post-graduate degree in Fluid Dynamics from The von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics/Belgium. European Aluminium has enlarged its membership to recyclers which were previously represented by the Organisation of the European Aluminium Recycling industry (OEA), and consequently founded a new Recycling Department to be headed by the Recycling Director.

Prof. Bernd Friedrich
RWTH Aachen University

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h.c. Bernd Friedrich studied nonferrous metallurgy the RWTH Aachen University. From 1984 to 1987 he worked as research assistant at IME, Aachen and defended Ph.D. thesis in applied electrochemistry. From 1988 to 1992 he worked as head of the R&D department and from 1992 to 1995 as profit center manager „Hydride-technology and smarts materials“ at GFE, Nuremberg, Germany. From 1995 to 1999 he was plant manager at Varta AG with responsibilities for the operations in Hagen, Germany (NiCd/NiMH), and Ceska Lipa, Czech Republic (Li-Ion). In 1999 Bernd Friedrich became director of IME Process Metallurgy and Metal Recycling, chair and department of the RWTH Aachen University. He authored and co-authored more than 400 publications in scientific journals and conference-proceedings and received the Dr. honoris causa degree from DonTU Donetsk Technical University in 2011.

Prof. Geoff Scamans
Chief Scientific OfficerInnoval Technology

Geoff Scamans is the Chief Scientific Officer at Innoval Technology and is a Professor of Metallurgy at Brunel University. His expertise is in light metals and their applications in the automotive and aerospace industries, and in knowledge transfer from the research base to industry. Over the last 40 years he has initiated and managed a number of R&D programmes on both aluminium alloy development and technological innovation, making scientific and technological contributions to the light metals sector, described in over 150 publications. His main interests are in developing higher performance aluminium alloys and in the closed loop recycling of aluminium alloys as an alternative to primary production in order to transform the aluminium industry from packaging based products into transport based products (“Cans to Cars”). His other significant interest is in understanding the development and properties of deformed surface layers on aluminium alloys and their control through efficient cleaning and pretreatment processes to increase line speeds in sheet finishing operations and to eliminate cosmetic corrosion.

Werner Fragner studied “Process Engineering and Plant Construction” at Montanuniversity Leoben (Austria) and “Environmental Science and Engineering” from 1998 – 2000 at the Colorado School of Mines (USA). From 2001 he worked in the casting division of LKR (Light Metal Competence Center) and then managed this division from 2006 on. In 2010 he transferred to AMAG, where he took over the management of the process optimization at AMAG casting. In 2012 Werner earned his Ph.D. degree on “Investigation of the Interface Reaction of Al and Binary Al-Alloys on Mild Steel Substrates for Al Compound Casting”.

Adrian Tautscher has worked at Jaguar Land Rover for 15 years and is responsible for Sustainable Aluminium Strategies. His role is leading Circular Economy initiatives with a focus on aluminium and a number of research projects pioneering new closed-loop and recycling approaches.

Adrian has led the long term strategic ‘REALCAR’ (REcycled ALuminium CAR) project that has developed greater recycling from closed-loop sources. REALCAR and further projects have investigated opportunities to exploit additional recycled aluminium from post-consumer and End-of-Life vehicles and potential for re-use and re-manufacture. These projects are developing strategies for use in the next generation Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles.

Previous responsibility within Jaguar Land Rover was Group Leader for the Materials Engineering Body-in-White/Corrosion Teams that has led the introduction of new materials into the latest aluminium architectures. Adrian has previously held positions at Lotus Engineering and British Steel and holds a Degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Christophe Boussemart
Sustainability ManagerNespresso

Christophe Boussemart began his career as a rollercoaster engineer. His time at Nespresso has been equally fast-paced since joining the R&D team 15 years ago. Driven by a combined passion for innovation and sustainability, Christophe was responsible for several inventions to make coffee machines more energy efficient and reduce their environmental impact. The success of these developments sparked an ambition to improve the sustainability of every cup of Nespresso coffee. Today, Christophe is dedicated full-time developing recycling solutions for Nespresso consumers all around the world. The pioneering Nespresso scheme integrates 100,000 collection points in 38 countries in a system which recovers both the aluminium and the valuable coffee grounds, which are converted into nutrient-rich compost or bio-gas. Christophe was also one of the pioneers of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative – an industry-wide collaborative effort towards the goal of sustainably and responsibly sourcing aluminium.

Patrik Ragnarsson
Senior ManagerAutomotive & Transport Group of European Aluminium

Patrik Ragnarsson works as a Senior Manager in the Automotive & Transport Group of European Aluminium. After a Master of Science degree in vehicle engineering at KTH in Stockholm 2001, he started his career working for a Swedish consultancy firm. Before joining European Aluminium in 2010, he worked with research at LMS International and the University of Leuven. Patrik has a broad experience from different European research projects in the field of transportation.

At European Aluminium Patrik is responsible for advocacy, communication and project management. He is managing the association’s effort to coordinate lobbying activities in order to support aluminium applications in European cars and commercial vehicles. In this task, collaborations with national aluminium associations, trade associations, NGOs and other stakeholders are of key importance.

Alan is CEO, Managing Director, and part owner, of the ALTEK group, a company that specialises in technical innovation and solutions for the aluminium cast house and aluminium recycling operations within the aluminium industry, and which has operational bases in both the UK and US. His experience covers 30 years of designing, selling, managing and executing complex capital plant projects (from smaller $200k value projects right through to very large $300million turnkey projects) in the metals industry all over the world. He holds several patents, is a leading authority on the use of electromagnetic stirring technology within aluminium cast houses and a regular presenter of technical papers at many international aluminium conferences around the world each year.

Adrian Platt
President Aluminium Federation (ALFED)

Adrian Platt is a managing director of Whitchurch-based environmental services company Befesa UK and current President of the Aluminium Federation (ALFED), the UK’s aluminium trade association.

Born in Liverpool in 1966, Adrian’s career began as an industrial process chemist. In 2003, after 16 years in the chemicals industry, Adrian moved to the aluminium sector when he was appointed managing director of Befesa Salt Slags UK. In addition, Adrian also has a management role with the company’s international salt slags division, which has plants in the UK, Spain and Germany. Adrian’s background in chemicals and engineering has enabled him to gain an extensive knowledge of the current and future salt slag and spent pot liner processing industry. In 2014 Adrian’s interest in environmental issues led to his becoming chair of the new Meres and Mosses Business Environment Network, a new environmental partnership model bringing together businesses, environmental groups and conservation charities in the Marches area. Adrian is passionate about manufacturing and the future of the aluminium industry.

Martin Weiss
Global Sales ManagementREDWAVE XRF

Martin Weiss, MSc attended the Higher Technical College in Weiz, Austria with a specialty in Mechanical/Environmental Engineering. After the military service he studied Industrial Environmental Protection- Process Engineering at the Montanuniversity of Leoben, Austria. During that time he was working for several companies in the fields of waste management and environmental protection. In the year 2011 Martin Weiss earned his Master Degree in Science and joined REDWAVE XRF where he is currently responsible for Global Sales Management.